Schooling in suburbia: the intersections of race, class, gender, and place in black fathers’ engagement and family–school relationships

Abstract

ABSTRACTFew studies have explored the engagement of fathers in children’s schooling. Understanding the role that black fathers, in particular, play in their children’s education is both important and timely given the persistent opportunity gaps faced by many black students in the US and the influential role that black fathers can play in their children’s academic success. This paper thus explores the experiences and educational engagement strategies of a socioeconomically mixed sample of 16 black fathers in a predominantly white suburb in the US. The research findings challenge dominant portrayals of black fathers as largely absent or uninvolved in their children’s education, and illustrate the importance of understanding the intersections of race, class, gender, and place in studies of parents’ engagement.